Tuesday, 12 November 2013

Discovering the Eternal Champions

A week or two ago I stumbled on a box of figures on ebay which had never registered with me before; Citadel's BC5 Eternal Champions boxed set.

Classic Moorcock imagery by Rodney Matthews. I idly checked out his website; his original paintings are on sale for hundreds of thousands of pounds!

I've not idea why I've overlooked this range in the past - I love Moorcock's books and have read pretty much all of them from the Eternal Champion saga. I also love Jes Goodwin's figures. So I placed a prospective bid and picked up the set.

Of course, there's the obligatory added bonus with this particular box - it is signed by Jes Goodwin himself:

Jes Goodwin's iconic rune.

On opening the box, there was a tantilising glimpse of classic figures, fairly nicely painted in old school paints. Black and red gloss seem to have been popular with the original owner!

Sadly Corum has suffered a double foot amputation. Happily I have sourced a replacement!

Elric and Moonglum face off against a hideous beast of chaos. Notice the high gloss finish on Moonglum's red trousers - rubber or PVC do you think?

This set has proved to be an unexpected joy to me - the figures are superb and I can't wait to repaint them. In fact I was so enthused by the range that I immediately set out to see what other Eternal Champion figures I could track down.

There are plenty of extortionate Buy It Now auctions on ebay, with some of the figures on sale for £30+ each. That said, there are also some more realistically priced figures and I've managed to pick up a selection of Melniboneans and personality models (including Jhary-a-Conel, Elric the White Wolf and a Pan Tang Officer) for an average of about £4 each over the last fortnight. If only I could turn the clock back a few months when I traded away some Melnibonean axemen and cavalry!

So, I've managed to gather around 20 of the 60 or so figures in the Eternal Champions range in the space of 3 weeks...I wonder how long it will take me to complete it?!

3 comments:

WHAT ! How come did you get a Jahry for 4£, the fella keeps avoiding me like pest!You're lucky with your set, broken feet on this lot is nothing rare. the Jes Rune is also a very nice addition to your collection. Yes, this is a very fine range.I've planned on re-reading them all and painting each champion afterwards so Corum shouldn't be far away.I was waiting for a proper Jahry though ...Glad all thoses beauties got to a nice collector as yourself and take a look on the forum's marketplace, some people have some spare menilboneans...

I've wanted to add one of these for my under construction Warhammer Roleplay (1st ed.) adventure band. They sure are full of retro. Oh, and the smell that comes out of these boxes, somehow that brings back the memories...

About Me

I've been gaming since the late 1980s - I tend to get distracted and jump from one project to another. The one constant is that I love the character of Citadel miniatures of the late 1980s and early 1990s - Warhammer, Blood Bowl, Rogue Trader.